Goomer

Ma'am, Merlin (Goomer) is doing well. He is currently 31 pounds. He took to potty training very quickly. We have had a few accidents here and there, but that was our fault for not taking him out quickly enough. We crate him when he has to be left a lone. He whines a bit when he first goes in and yelps when I first leave in the morning, but settles down quickly. He has been to our vet. He had worms, but is getting treatment. We also have him on Revolution. Other than that he checked out really well. We are taking him back for his rabies booster and followup soon. We want to start taking him to puppy classes this next week after his rabies booster, but haven't settled on one specifically. I have started with the sit and stay at home. He has no food aggression with us We have had some issues between him and my older lab. Merlin started trying to use Bogart as a chew toy. We are managing that well so far. One thing that I'm having trouble with is walking them together, and my wife has given up trying. Bogart is 12 and lags behind. If I walk Merlin alone, he heels fine. When they are together though Merlin is either lunging forward to get ahead of Bogart or backward because Bogart is too far away. He sits when I tell him too and he settles for a bit, but as soon as we start walking again... Any suggestions about this would be helpful. Merlin is one smart stubborn puppy. My wife and I compare notes on how he is trying to manipulate us to do what he wants. The one that made me laugh was when Merlin was having some stomach issues. My wife started sleeping down stairs to let him out if he started whining. Low and behold it didn't take long before he was whining to be let out and then just playing with a pine cone or stick to chew on. Did I mention he was doing this every hour on the hour from 2:00 - 5:00 AM and that he taught my wife to let him out starting the second night? Smart puppy. Speaking of chewing, I had completely forgotten how sharp puppy teeth can be. We've taught him not to chew on us, and mostly not on Bogart's ears or paws. We give him bully sticks and an antler horn. The horn works great for long term chewing and gnawing. I am also taking him for really long walks to bleed off as much of the energy as possible. It works really well. Now, remember I talked to you about smart and stubborn? So he has his 'bone' and Bogart has his own. So of course, the 'bone' that they want is the one that the other dog has. If Merlin starts to get bored, he starts playing with his bone in front of Bogart, then starts dropping it. When Bogart starts chewing, then Merlin starts to annoy him until Bogart opens his mouth to bark, at which point Merlin picks up the dropped 'bone'. This behavior started because Merlin isn't wining at 'tug of war'. As long as there aren't any teeth or growling involved I stay out of it. It is hilareous to see developing though. At first it involved growling and teeth baring from either of the dogs. but no way that was going to work. So I'd take the 'bones' away from both of them. Now they will tussle a bit and then I trade the bone between them to keep things under control. We meet other dogs and their owners on the walks. So far so good. He is actually shy a round other people unless they get down closer to his level or if he has met them before. He does well with other dogs, so far. The 'trick' is to not let him get too excited before they meet, which means a sit. It doesn't always work, which is the main reason for me wanting the puppy class. I think that I need to get him to de-focus earlier, but once he gets focused, other than clapping to get his attention, he just stands ears up and ready. Only a couple sessions of barking and and 1 of growling so far, but if I can't figure out how to snap him out of it before he ramps up, that will get worse as he grows older, so any suggestions on this would also be appreciated. I've thought of using a treat to get his attention and then wait till he is focused on me and sitting, problem though is that I don't have one in my hand when we are walking. With people, he will tend to get behind me. With dogs, he moves in front. I tend to move back in front, if we are a lone and that works, but with Bogart lagging behind, it gets problematic to do it quickly. Like I said suggestions are helpful and puppy classes are coming soon. Over all he is doing very well. He can be very affectionate. We love him to death. All puppies look like angles, but they all have a big devil on their shoulder. The trick with being a good owner is teaching the puppy to not listen to the devil. So far so good, but the journey has just begun :)